Message from Maurice KAMTO on the elimination of the indomitable lions in the 2017 Football Confederation cup in Russia

Message from the CRM National President on the elimination of the indomitable lions in the 2017 Football Confederation cup in Russia

IN VICTORY AS IN DEFEAT, THE FATHERLAND SUPPORTS YOU.

Dear fellow citizens,

The participation of our national football team, the Indomitable Lions, in the Confederations Cup in Russia and the treatment that has been reserved for players of this team by the Regime in place after their underperformance give me the opportunity to speak to you, on the management of symbolic bearers of our collective identity and of our image on the world stage.

Those who govern our country, the President of the Republic in the lead, have developed an opportunistic approach to sports performances of Cameroonians, by virtue of which they only associate themselves with victories. Each victory of our national football team is thus a personal victory of the Head of State. This approach, of a government that tries to hide its failures on all grounds, namely economic, social, educational, cultural, democratic, by sportsmen' victories, constitutes a bad example for the education and the moral rearmament of young Cameroonians.

No nation has ever got only victories. What is expected of athletes who carry our dreams is to play to their limits, to surpass themselves if possible so as not to dishonour the national flag. To shine at the invaluable prize of winning effort as our Indomitable Lions did at the end of ACN 2017 and to be welcomed as heroes of a Nation of which they are the only ones to give it a reason for joy, is fair and legitimate. But that one ignores these same young compatriots after a failed Confederations Cup, only five months after this miraculous victory at the ACN, as if they had betrayed the Nation, it is lacking a sense of elevation and of preparation of the youth for future victories. The Government should send them a public message of encouragement; it would have been honourable and more constructive for all Cameroonian youth, because governance by demanding immediate results, synonymous with victories, does not guarantee victories of tomorrow. It transmits to young people the terrible message that they have no right to the recognition of the Nation, to pomp and ceremony without a future, only in the event of victory, and that only the glory of the instant, "now, now, now" as we say.

My dear compatriots, supporters of Lions, fans of football or not, nothing should undermine our pride and affection for our sportsmen - whose performances are sometimes passed over in silence - in this case against our footballers who have shown on other occasions, like the late Marc Vivien Foe, that they were ready for the worse so that the tricolour flag struck with the golden star floats high in the sky of the world.

Dear young Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, your defeat in the Confederations Cup is a test for you as for all Cameroonians. It cannot be an occasion for your denial by your fellow citizens whom you have done so much to honour on other occasions, and no later than January of this year in Libreville. Be assured of the consideration that many Cameroonians and I, at this moment of defeat and sorrow, have for you; for the sorrows of today will strengthen you for the victories of tomorrow. Many of your fellow countrymen, like myself, would like to make selfies by your side in these difficult times, who recognize that you are and remain, in the domain that is yours, the pride of Cameroon, like scientists, Artists, our soldiers who put their lives at risk everyday fighting Boko Haram, and who do not expect to make a political use of your victories!